Author's Note: Not much to say at the moment, I've got some light reading to do and anime to watch but I will have next week's chapter ready to go. Thus Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!


Chapter 63: A Stroll Through The Enchanted Forest

The Dragon's game had ended with much fanfare, but what else can be expected when the home team wins the match? But not everyone was happy. Lance was back in his team's stable glowering angrily at his team mates.

"We were humiliated! Beaten black and Blue! Stripped naked!" Facts that his ostentatious allies were fully aware of and did not need to be reminded about. "How the heck did this happen!? I thought we already knew everything about them!?"

"We knew everything that they knew, but it seems that they did not know everything either." A somewhat nerdy looking member of the team stated scratching his chin. "Not even that so called 'expert' up in that booth knew that the other head of that two header spat health potions. One of them didn't even seem to know which side of his dragon it's head was on. Even that rot cloud attack could have just been something they came up with on the spot. That Girl didn't even know how to do something as basic as full counter."

"What are you getting at?" Lance growled glaring down at his teammate that seemed to be his intel man.

"I think we over estimated them in many regards, under estimated them in others. If their team work was optimize for instance they would have been faster and matched up with our sense of timing, but since it wasn't our estimates was thrown off. We also under estimated their willingness to play dirty, that girl's lightning tricks for instance, those knights who seemed to default to 'throw dung at us' as a viable strategy, not to mention the stripping..." The nerd awkwardly pulled on the jersey he had borrowed just to make sure that it wasn't showing anything.

"Don't even mention the stripping." One of the other chasers stated looking traumatized.

"And now that we know what to expect?" Lance asked looking at his nerdy associate suspiciously.

"No actually we don't. Given the blatant disregard for public decency and the rampant outrage the public will make about this event they're going to have to completely change their play style." The Nerd replied prompting Lance to pick up a chair and slam it into the ground hard enough to break off it's legs. "That is not helping any."

"Then you and this chair have a lot in common! If I break off your legs too you'd be twins!" Lance snapped threateningly before he found a new target for his anger. "And as for you!" Lance's attention turned to a certain feathery creature lounging in a corner of the stables. "What was all of that about!?" Lance had not chosen the Razor Wing for offensive power, defensive power, speed or breath attacks, he didn't pick it because of it's over all stats, merely that it made him look good. Well now he looked the fool. "Are you telling me this is the best that you can do you worthless bird!" Lance raised up one arm still holding onto the leg of the chair to strike his dragon but stopped, not of his own volition either.

"And here I was hoping you had changed Lance." Daring's voiced echoed from behind Charming Prep's Dragon Riding captain.

"Daring you pain in the butt! What are you doing here!?" Lance caught sight of Daring out of the corner of his eye, leaning up against the far wall and far away, too far to be the one with his arm in a death grip.

"Checking in on your team. Some of you got some severe injuries and others breathed in the fumes from Yin's breath attack, yourself included, so I was mildly concerned." Daring replied as he looked over the assembled group of Charming Prep students. "But now I see that the only one I need to be worried about is you." Daring could only shake his head in dismay, while the rest of Lance's teammates were shaking in fear.

"What is it? Need your brother to fight your battles now or your sister!?" The answer was ultimately neither, as Lance turned around to face a familiar looking red head with dog ears. "Since when does Prince Charming go to a stupid mons-ack!" Ramona squeezed hard enough that Lance had to drop his weapon, the chair leg landing with a loud clank, not hard enough though that she did lasting damage to the fool's arm beyond a bruise in shape of her hand.

"Hit that dragon with that stick and I will make you eat it!" Ramona stated non threateningly, without a shred of doubt, it was the same kind of statement one would make when commenting on the color of the sky, a simple declaration of fact as she released the young nobleman's arm.

"Do I look like I am threatened by monsters?" Saying that Lance picked up the chair leg again and finished what he started and brought it down on the head of his Razor Wing.

"GUH!" It was a blink and you'll miss it moment, even if you did see what happened it would be hard to comprehend. Lance was now on his back on the floor choking. On what you maybe wondering? The top of the chair leg that he had been holding was now sticking out of his mouth like some carnival sword swallowing act.

"Wow you really did make him eat it." Daring was shocked in all honestly. Lance's 'friends' were horrified beyond reckoning watching their leader being put on the ground writhing as he worked to dislodge the chunk of chair from his throat. "Ah Ramona do yah mind?"

"As a matter of fact..." Not bothering to finish that sentence Ramona delivered a kick to the poor bugger's gut spitting out most of the chair in the process. Most being the Key word, a chunk of it looked like it had broken off and was now lodged in Lance's gut.

"Huu. Was it too much to asked that you just pull it out?" Daring asked letting out a sigh. "I mean you put it there in the first place?"

"Would you like me to pull the rest of it out too then?" Ramona examined her hand and this Lance a couple of times, as if she was debating the viability of reaching down his throat and pulling the rest out, much to Lance's visible terror.

"No I think we better just take him to the Army Doctors." Daring stated as he slung Lance over his shoulders and carried him off.


"Couldn't have happened to a nicer Charming." Morgan stated as she continued with her business.

"What in Hel's name are you talking about?" Headmistress Bloodgood asked suspiciously. "I thought you said you were checking on my students?"

"Nothing. Ramona just got into a fight again. Now that everything over here is cleaned up the Wonderlanders will start evacuating everyone back." Morgan stated prompting a sigh from the woman she was talking to.

"Moving on. The Cheshires have already cleaned up everything in that dimension, and have posted guards to find any more. In the mean time I've started to look at other avenues in the search of information." Towards this end Morgan pulled out a somewhat familiar creature in a coffin from the hallway. It vaguely resembled a Lithilid Master, when you ignored the mummified flesh and lack of tentacles or webbed hands.

"What is it?" Mistress Bloodgood asked looking mildly concerned.

"A humanoid type Lithilid. To be more accurate whatever they were before they were infected by the parasites." Morgan explained as she prepared to work her magic. "This one appears to have been made into a snack instead." The hole in it's head was identical to the one that the Lithilid left in Cleo when it attempted to brain suck her, presumably there was more success with this one. "One of your students plucked it out of their Leviathan. I'm going to wake it up for an interrogation." As Morgan explained her magic finished it's work and the mummy and it rose up from it's sarcophagus magically being stood on it's feet in the process. "Do you remember what happened to you?"

"Ohw era uoy?" Oh boy it was going to be one of these days.

"If the Lithilids we've taken prisoner are from this species then it stands to reason that they know his language." Morgan stated smacking herself in her head. "I'll work on getting some translations spells working." With a snap of her fingers the alien fell back into it's box with a loud thud. "You can look after that while I'm away." Saying that Morgan left once more, and speaking of leaving...


"I need to get out of this realm." Cleo had been covered in garbage. Charming Prep quickly proved to be the sorest of losers and she was the one holding a Ever After High Flag in the middle of their cheering section.

"I'm going to do us both a huge favor and not even bother asking." Raven stated as she pulled popcorn out of Cleo's Hair. "Do you want to use the showers?"

"Unless the showers here spew hydra venom I don't think they'll do us much good." Cleo was a mummy after all, water was her enemy, less her body that was being held together by tight bands of dried flesh start to come apart.

"Then a bathtub in the girl's dorm, though we'll still need to do something about the water... I think I can come up with something suitably horrible in the Chem lab." Raven stated as she tapped her finger tips together.

"I would prefer something a little more natural." Cleo stated having always been extremely particular about what kinds of things that she puts into her body.

"We'd have to drop by Ever After's local nature reserve for that to happen though." Raven commented as she scratched her chin thinking about the situation.

"Fine let's go." Cleo stated as if the situation was obvious.

"That was a fast decision." Raven commented looking at Cleo suspiciously who brushed the garbage off of herself.

"I've kept deadly asps with less venom in their bites than these people." Cleo stated as the bulk of the solid materials were shaken off of her body leaving the more liquid of the mess behind.

"Speaking of if we're going snake hunting then we should probably call in some help from the locals." Raven suggested finger in the air.

"And whom do you have in mind for that?" Cleo asked gesturing to the garbage on the ground like it was proof of character.

"Friend of mine on this side of the void." Raven explained as she got out her phone.


Twenty minuets later Raven and Cleo were waiting outside of the entrance to the enchanted forest, joining them were Ramona, Clawdeen, Frankie, Laura and most recently Apple.

"I know that Raven called me over but..." Apple stated looking at the assembled group of Raven's associates.

"This place is way too urban for a Demi-Human to stretch their legs!" Clawdeen stated as she cracked her fingers and stretched out her whole entire body.

"Or wings." Laura stated ring and pinky digits, the wing parts of her arm, wagging in front of her. "I'll get weird looks if I do it in the middle of town."

"And Cleo isn't the only undead who could benefit from a poison soak." Frankie piped up before glaring at the mummy girl. "Some of us can't afford to do it every single night."

"Right. Before we go you guys should probably know something." Apple stated getting the group's attention in the process. "I don't know what Hydra's are like where you come from but this one is a little... testy."

Oh boy it was going to be one of those days.

"How testy?" Raven asked suspiciously.

"It doesn't get along with the other creatures, and lets just say that after we had to replace the first three caretakers assigned to feed it we just drop it's food on it from above now." Apple explained looking somewhat uneasy about the situation.

"Is it safe to go near it?" Ramona asked cocking a suspicious brow at the young princess.

"Not unless you have a knack that allows you to control reptiles. But dragons and all of their subspecies have always been difficult, and this guy really doesn't like taking orders. I think I can keep it from trying to bite me but the rest of you..." Apple trailed off as blanks were filled in.

"Are on the menu." Clawdeen stated letting out a sigh. "Well I'm going no where near this thing's habitat. Got any wolves in the area?" It's been a couple of weekends since Clawdeen had gotten to run wild with a pack.

"A bunch of Bargiests and Cerberus were given to mom a few years ago from Riordan." Raven visibly cringed at Apple's words, on a side note Morgan would be rethinking the birthday gifts she sends her mother on a yearly basis. "They seem to have formed up into a pack in the northern corner of the forest." Apple explained prompting a satisfied nod from Clawdeen.

"I'm just going to stick to flying." Laura stated as she took off her cloak to reveal a Virgin Killer Sweater, really one of the few pieces of clothing that would fit around her overly large wings.

"Watch out for the Bandersnatch, some of them escape through the Wonderland portal every once in a while." Apple explained looking mildly concerned.

"'Bandersnatch?'" Laura asked cocking a brow suspiciously at the Princess.

"Airborn flying piranha." Raven chimed helpfully.

"Ah. Fish." Laura stated nodding her head. "I can handle fish no problem."

"Don't try to eat them." Raven stated clearly concerned. "They can have nasty side effects if you eat them raw." On that note the girls went into the forest.

It didn't take them long to find the hydra's lair, the remains of it's meals making a pile just outside of a cave that led deep underground, if memory serves Hydra's are suppose to like cold areas, help counteract the consequences of a huge body and a high metabolism to maintain it. Ramona made Raven stay back with her while Cleo and Frankie approached the cave with Apple.

"Howard are you in there?" Apple asked prompting looks of shock from the two undead.

"The Hydra's name is Howard?" Cleo was not prepared for that bit of news.

"Well we had to name him something." Apple countered while a familiar hissing noise echoed from within the cave. The heads of the infamous multi-headed snake were roughly triple the total width of a regular python with a comparatively flat face, and there were three of them.

"Hello Howard. We were wondering if...?" Two of the heads lashed out and bit down on the torso's of Frankie and Cleo.

As usual the snake began the preparations to digest his meal, injecting victims with organ dissolving Venom and crushing bones with it's powerful jaws. Then it actually got to taste the two and spat them out, poor taste buds snakes might have, but even a monster with half a dozen mouths to feed isn't hungry enough to eat rotting meat. Still the three of them looked at them like they had been cheated out of a meal.

"Well that was anti-climatic." Cleo stated still feeling venom going through her veins. "Ah well worth it." The Bandages around her body tightened up as the moisture they receive earlier was being drained from her body while her flesh inflated slightly becoming a more healthy musculature.

"Oh Oh Yeah!" Frankie on the other hand was laughing now as her unique undead biology was having a reaction to the poison, of the electrical variety. Literal lightning was now coursing through her veins as it felt like she could win a arm wrestling contest with a giant. "Why are the hairs on the back of my neck standing up?"

"Static electricity?" Cleo suggested though noted that she was getting the same response too.

"I kind of doubt it." Apple was slowly backing away from the trio of angry serpents as their numbers rapidly increased to seven.

"Ah Crud."

Cleo achieved a limited form of flight by using manipulation of the air around her to lift her into the air, while Frankie dumped as much electricity as possible into her legs before she grabbed Apple and ran. For something without any legs the bugger was fast, having sprung out of the cave and was now giving chase, it might have been the use of some of it's heads to grab onto things and pull it forward. They had no idea where Ramona went, the most likely explanation that she took Raven and headed for the hills the moment that the Hydra tried to take a bite out of them. They personally agreed with that attitude but it still didn't change the fact that they were up a river without a paddle.

"Any idea on how we can keep him from eating us?" Frankie asked as she ran as fast as she could manage.

"He's not gonna eat me, so I suggest dropping me you might be able to run faster. I'll try and get them to calm down." As Apple suggested Frankie unceremoniously dropped Ever After's princess at the side of the road. "Howard!" Apple shouted trying to get the Hydra's attention, only for it to brush her off in favor of continuing it's chase.

"Well that failed any other ideas!?" Frankie asked as she started to run out of the high she got from the hydra's poison.

"Split up! It can't chase both of us!" Cleo went high to the left and Frankie low to the right. The Hydra made a effort to divide it's heads to chase after both of them at once only for said heads to be stopped by the fact that they were still attached together at the base. The heads could only growl in frustration as they made their plan to deal with them.


Review Section:

ChimaTigon: Good to know.

Starlord Master: Ah, a Overlord fan I see. I wrote a fic for that once I recommend it if you're looking for something darker, I might even start updating it again if I can get some interest rolling for it again. Happy late Valentines back. The various goal posts have different point values, the ones on either side are considered more difficult to defend so they only spit out one point each, but the one in the middle is worth about five.